Liberals has given me cause for reflection. The very day after my
play was published the _Dagblad_ rushed out a hurriedly-written
article, evidently designed to purge itself of all suspicion of
complicity in my work. This was entirely unnecessary. I myself am
responsible for what I write, I and no one else. I cannot possibly
embarrass any party, for to no party do I belong. I stand like a
solitary franc-tireur at the outposts, and fight for my own hand.
The only man in Norway who has stood up freely, frankly, and
courageously for me is Bjornson. It is just like him. He has in
truth a great, kingly soul, and I shall never forget his action in
this matter."

One more quotation completes the history of these stirring January
days, as written by Ibsen himself. It occurs in a letter to a
Danish journalist, Otto Borchsenius. "It may well be," the poet
writes, "that the play is in several respects rather daring. But it
seemed to me that the time had come for moving some boundary-posts.
And this was an undertaking for which a man of the older generation,
like myself, was better fitted than the many younger authors who
might desire to do something of the kind. I was prepared for a
storm; but such storms one must not shrink from encountering. That
would be cowardice."

It happened that, just in these days, the present writer had
frequent opportunities of conversing with Ibsen, and of hearing
from his own lips almost all the views expressed in the above
extracts. He was especially emphatic, I remember, in protesting
against the notion that the opinions expressed by Mrs. Alving or
Oswald were to be attributed to himself. He insisted, on the
contrary, that Mrs. Alving's views were merely typical of the moral